The Blackwood Brothers
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Blackwood Brothers were an American gospel music singing group. They formed in 1934 in the midst of the Great Depression when Pentecostal preacher Roy Blackwood moved his family back home to Mississippi. His brothers Doyle and James (only 15 at the time) already had some experience singing with Vardaman Ray and Gene Catledge. Adding Roy's 13-year-old son R. W. Blackwood to sing baritone, the brothers began to travel and sing locally. By 1940, they were affiliated with Stamp-Baxter to sell songbooks and were appearing on 50,000-watt radio station KMA in Shenandoah, Iowa.
The quartet relocated to Memphis, TN in 1950. The move would proved to be profitable for the group as they began to appear on television station WMCT in coming years. On June 14, 1954, the Blackwood Brothers lineup of Bill Shaw-tenor, James Blackwood - lead, R.W. Blackwood - baritone, Bill Lyles - bass, and Jackie Marshall - piano, won the Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts competition on national television with their rendition of Have You Talked To The Man Upstairs? The excitement was short lived however, when a fatal plane crash in Clanton, Alabama just 16 days later claimed the lives of R. W. Blackwood and bass singer Bill Lyles, along with a local friend from Clanton, Johnny Ogburn. Bill Shaw, James Blackwood and Jackie Marshall soldiered on. R.W.'s little brother Cecil took over as baritone and J. D. Sumner replaced Lyles at the bass position. In the following years, he and James Blackwood put a number of innovative ideas into play. They were the first to customize a bus for group travel and are the founders of the National Quartet Convention. Sumner also contributed to the group as a songwriter, sometimes writing all the songs for a music album. The Blackwood Brothers were also setting new standards in the studio. Their RCA Victor recordings from this time period are now prized collectors' items. The lineup with Bill Shaw, James, Cecil, and J.D. Sumner is considered the classic version of the Blackwood Brothers Quartet, with Jackie Marshall or Wally Varner on piano.
The Blackwood Brothers formed a partnership with the Statesmen quartet to tour as a team in the 1950s. By the end of the decade, the team was making up to $1500 per performance, an amount unheard of previously. This dominance lasted for about a decade until the rise of gospel television shows in the late 1960s began to give competing groups wider exposure. The Stateswood team also started independent record label Skylite Records. At one time, the Skylite roster included the Blackwood Brothers, the Statesmen, J.D. Sumner and the Stamps Quartet, Jake Hess and The Imperials, The Speer Family, The Florida Boys, The Couriers, and The Oak Ridge Boys, along with the Rebels Quartet, from Tampa, FL.
The Blackwood Brothers were still a major force in the industry at the end of the 1960s. In 1969, they collected nearly 200,000 signatures on a "God And Country" petition in retaliation to the banning of prayer in school. In 1971, they were at the center of a scandal that led to the GMA Music Awards being nullified for that year. The scandal was prompted by an extraordinary number of Gospel Music Association (GMA) memberships sold by the Blackwood Brothers, which in turn skewed the final results of the Dove Awards in favor of the group and groups they recommended to their fans. James Blackwood, who was on the GMA board of directors at the time, promptly issued an apology on behalf of the Blackwood Brothers.
Popular Blackwood Brothers lineups during the post-Sumner era included bass singers John Hall, London Paris, and Ken Turner, and tenor Pat Hoffmaster. The 1970s lineup with Hoffmaster, Jimmy Blackwood, Cecil Blackwood, Ken Turner and Tommy Fairchild had the Blackwood Brothers' biggest hit with Learning To Lean.
After the departure of James Blackwood, the Blackwood Brothers continued to sing together with various lineups for the rest of the 20th century. When the group disbanded after the death of Cecil Blackwood, James announced the group name was also to be retired. However, his son Jimmy eventually put the name back to use following James’ death. Jimmy had sung with the Blackwood Brothers Quartet from 1969 to 1986. Various members of the Blackwood family have also had groups that employed the banner of the family name…the Blackwood Singers and the Blackwood Gospel Quartet, being two variations from recent years. James Blackwood also had a group late in his life that was billed as the James Blackwood Quartet.
